Page 15 of A Witch and Her Dragon
Begrudgingly, I complied.
And actually, it’s a small miracle, one I didn’t realize I’d be so grateful for. Being separated from Alina by a closed door helps give me a break from her, gives me and my dragon a moment to catch our breath.
These last few weeks have been excruciating. It’s so much worse than I thought it was going to be. Alina’s smell is around me all the time, and every time I see her, I have to fight my dragon’s urge to break free and claim her, to wrapher in its claws and carry her off to some distant high tower where no one will ever find us again.
I absolutelycannotdo that, no matter how vehemently my dragon is trying to convince me otherwise.
Far off, a clock tower chimes, its deep song reverberating through the castle corridors. It only takes about twenty seconds for the door to Alina’s magical ethics class to fly open, and first-year students in blue-trimmed robes start pouring out. She’s in the middle of the group, talking to two young men, her lips pulled into a big smile as she laughs.
My dragon coils.
As soon as she steps from the room, I’m at her side, and the smile that was on her lips moments ago flickers. I try not to take ittoopersonally. She would likely react that way no matter which of the king’s knights was standing here in my place. Still, it stings.
She carries on her conversation with the two other students, who eye me warily but say nothing to me. One of them invites her to the astronomy tower to study.
What they need to study so early in the schoolyear, I couldn’t guess. He probably just wants to spend more time with her.
“I’d love to,” she says.
A ripple of irritation goes through me. I tighten my jaw.
I’ve no right to be annoyed. Of course the male students are taking an interest in her.
But my dragon struggles to see reason.
The three of them start down the hall. I’m taller than most of the other students, and when they see me coming, they flit out of the way, creatingan unimpeded path for Alina to walk down. Though most probably wouldn’t realize it, I note the subtle tightening of her shoulders as the students make a path for her and then pause or turn to watch her walk by. But she plays it off smoothly, acting like she doesn’t realize how the others stare.
I follow Alina and the two boys down twisting corridors filled with students and faculty and all manner of animal spirit companions. Then we come to a narrow arched doorway over which a glittering silver constellation has been etched into the stone. We pass through it to the staircase and start to climb. The steps ascend the tower in a tight spiral, and when we come upon other students on their way down, they have to press themselves against the cool stone walls to make room for us to pass.
Alina’s smell fills the space around me, and my dragon encourages me to reach for her, to capture a strand of her hair and twist it about my finger. But I do no such thing. I take a breath and hold it, then busy myself with counting the stairs as my boots ascend each one.
By the time we’ve reached the top, I’ve counted to 310—making this tower slightly taller than the king’s study back in Ravenscroft Castle.
We step out of the stairwell and into a tower with a big glass dome that provides an unhindered view of the early-September sky. Golden constellations glow upon the glass, depicting their locations in the sky despite the daylight making the stars impossible to see. Under foot, the floor is a tiled crystalline mosaic of celestial bodies. I lift a boot to find a star shooting across the sky.
Crescent-shaped couches hug the smooth rounded walls, and students lounge about, reading or studying or talking quietly with one another. Some gaze through telescopes trained on the open sky beyond the glass-dome ceiling.
That same sky calls to me, invites me to shed my human skin and unfurl my wings. The desire to do so makes my back itch, and I roll my shoulders in an effort to alleviate the discomfort.
Alina and her two companions find an open couch and drop their schoolbags alongside it before sitting down. I take up a position just to Alina’s left, close enough to reach her should I need to but far enough away that I can turn my head just slightly in an effort not to be overwhelmed by her intoxicating smell.
As expected, the male students don’t pull out books or notes of any kind. They just want to talk to her.
“So,” one of them says. “Is he your bodyguard or something?”
Though my gaze is directed away, I can feel their eyes shift to me. My dragon gnashes its teeth, but I don’t make any outward indication that I’m bothered or so much as interested in what they have to say about me.
“Yeah.” In my periphery, Alina shifts, her blue hair slipping over one shoulder. “He’s one of my grandfather’s knights.”
“And is he... always with you?” the other male asks.
Something about his tone sends me bristling, and my gaze slowly slides to him. I want to ask what business it is of his, but Alina responds before I get the chance to.
“Usually, yes.” She opens her bag and pulls out a book, then sets it in her lap. Maybe she reallydoesintend to study, even if the boys don’t. For some reason, that comforts me.
Though it shouldn’t.
“Isn’t that a little bit... creepy?” the first boy asks. “Having someone follow you around all the time?”
